Most industry analysts are forecasting explosive growth in the use of wireless data network technologies in industrial applications. For both ZigBee and Bluetooth separate alliances of companies worked to develop specifications covering the network/link, security and application profile layers so that the commercial potential of the standards could be realized. Real industrial wireless networks ar...
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The basic ideas of quantum computation are introduced by a brief discussion of Bennett (1973, 1982) and Fredkin's (1982, 1997) ideas of reversible computation. After some remarks about Deutsch's (1985) pioneering work on quantum complexity and Shor's (1996) factorisation algorithm, quantum logic gates, qubits and registers are discussed. The role of quantum entanglement is stressed and Grover's (1...
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Digital signal processing techniques and architectures have evolved rapidly in recent years. As a consequence, the range of potential applications has broadened extensively in both existing areas such as radar and sonar signal processing and in relatively new fields such as communications and industrial condition monitoring. The article reviews the development and principal application areas for d...
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Rapid prototyping is a technique that 'prints' a component, instead of manufacturing it in traditional terms, by using materials ranging from photopolymers to thermoplastics, including paper. Since these materials are in most cases not suitable for assessment purposes a new approach has been created. It has a similar 'build up' technique but uses metal as raw material. The process entails the use ...
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The controller area network is a well-established networking system specifically designed with real-time requirements in mind. Developed in the 1980s by Robert Bosch, its ease of use and low cost has led to its wide adoption throughout the automotive and automation industries. However, for the beginner using CAN may seem somewhat bewildering. This article goes some way into explaining how CAN is u...
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DESMET was a DTI-backed project with the goal of developing and validating a methodology for evaluating software engineering methods and tools. The project identified nine methods of evaluation and a set of criteria to help evaluators select an appropriate method. Detailed guidelines were developed for three important evaluation methods: formal experiments, quantitative case studies and feature an...
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It's becoming a wireless world. But while high data rate wireless standards like Wi-Fi and WiMax have been grabbing the headlines, the market for low data rate wireless could turn out to be even bigger. The US-based standards body IEEE organised a task group to develop a standard for low power, low data rate networks. As a result, the ZigBee Alliance was set up by a number of companies to work tog...
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Work aimed at justifying the requirement for a database as an aid to resource estimations for Ministry of Defence Procurement Executive software intensive projects is presented. The work consolidates an earlier study (Vijayakumar, S., 1991, 1994) and uses more recent data collected from 288 MOD projects. The research was initiated to identify and analyse the variables which influence the activitie...
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Wessex Water is one of the smallest of the privatised UK water companies, covering an area of 10000 km/sup 2/ and serving 2.4 million customers. This article outlines the way in which IEC 61131 and the dynamic systems development method have been adopted for use in developing real-time control systems for complex water treatment plants. Some conclusions are drawn regarding the benefits of this app...
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It is argued that the development of artificial intelligence techniques is bringing about fundamental changes in the way we represent and reason about the physical world. From a control engineering perspective, such methods offer a significant extension of the available method for systems modelling, and hence open up exciting prospects for the diversification of control methods to other applicatio...
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Presents an overview of the GSM (Global System for Mobile communication) short message service (SMS) from the viewpoint of implementing new telematic services. It is motivated by the increasing potential that the SMS offers for integration with existing messaging services and its ability to offer an alternative to TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol) for low-bandwidth appli...
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Fly-by-wire flight control has enabled a watershed improvement in aircraft performance and control to be achieved. This article covers first the basic concepts of FBW control and key elements such as electrical data transmission, failure survival actuation systems, aircraft motion sensors, and air data systems. Aircraft stability is then briefly described. The unique advantages of FBW control are ...
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Process automation systems are key to the organizations behind the UK's critical national infrastructure (CNI) as they both monitor and control critical processes involved with the production and transportation of gas, electricity and water. As these systems become more 'open' - using Ethernet, TCP/IP and Web technologies - they become vulnerable to the same threats that exist for normal IT system...
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The chances are that you are a QWERTY keyboard user. If you use a computer, if you access the Internet, if you check for a book on the computerised database of your local library, you will probably use the standard keyboard. It is likely you will be confronted with an alphanumeric keyboard with a somewhat bizarre arrangement of letters that has been nicknamed QWERTY (after the first six characters...
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Simulation methods play an important role in the design loop of sophisticated machine tools. In this paper we present a different type of simulation strategy, a method that integrates control hardware within a simulation model of the machine tool. For motion control software developers, the benefits are twofold: a simulation test bed becomes available before the machine is available, while the qua...
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There has been increased interest in the ZigBee standard, in particular for building automation and industrial controls. The ZigBee Alliance has identified six application spaces for ZigBee: consumer electronics, PC and peripherals, residential/light commercial control, industrial control, building automation and personal healthcare. This article deals mainly with industrial control and building a...
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Predicting the reliability of military vehicles has traditionally concentrated on estimation using failure data gathered during trials or use. However, it is increasingly recognised that predicting reliability earlier in the life cycle, using design and process capability evidence, is one way of improving predictions and positively influencing reliability. This article presents the use of Bayesian...
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3D imaging is an important tool for metrology and reverse engineering of components and structures in a wide variety of contexts, from automobile and aeroplane manufacture to creative media and architectural surveying. The authors review briefly the principal methods in current use for 3D imaging, then present a new method for time of flight depth measurement, which is more accurate and sensitive ...
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The 2D data matrix barcode is one of the most well known 2D barcode symbologies, widely used in automotive, aerospace and computer manufacturing industries. It is used for many applications that require large data capacity labeling, such as direct part marking (Car parts, airplane parts, printed circuit boards) and product marking (Pharmaceutical packages, printer cartridges, postal packages, plas...
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Systems engineering copes with complexity by organising development hierarchically into subsystems, some being software. Use cases are organised collections of scenarios, used to define the purposes of systems and software. They are well established in software engineering but more controversial for systems. Well organised use case models are suitable for eliciting and analysing functional require...
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We recommend an electronic donor card system, which can not only optimise the blood donation procedure, but also enhance the satisfaction of blood donors. Firstly, such system facilitates information acquisition and production during donor registration. An additional benefit is that, in this age of information technology, blood donors usually prefer to use electronic donor cards. Therefore, the Qo...
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The past few years have seen the explosive growth of the Internet and of all kinds of Internet services, taking the Internet out of the academic community and firmly into the realm of commerce. To summarise the task of e-commerce security, its primary purpose is not to protect the messages exchanged during business transactions, but to protect the parties involved in those transactions. To be prec...
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The problem of parametric identification is addressed using a cost function that weights the difference between the Bode diagrams of a model and its data. This article presents a MATLAB program for parametric estimation (AFT=Ajustamiento de Funcions de Transferencia) that includes single rules for the estimation of parameters from low- and high-frequency response data. The rest of the parameters a...
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An H/sub infinity / control law has been successfully flight tested on the DRA Bedford Harrier. This and subsequent flight tests demonstrated the practicality and power of H/sub infinity / as a design tool for systems with multiple inputs and outputs. The technique has potential both to reduce design time, and to improve robustness and performance for such systems. This article discusses the devel...
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Describes a range of developments by Possum Controls Ltd. The company makes control systems for the assistance of the disabled, and the article focusses on systems in which command input is by voice and the purpose is to perform various household functions; operating the television, video and radio, opening the front door (an intercom is involved), opening curtains, controlling the telephone, etc....
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Most of these industrial uses of wireless solutions are involved with monitoring such as telemetry applications. This paper focuses on newer emerging technologies such as BlueTooth, ZigBee and wireless Ethernet. The main motivation for industrial end users is to improve their competitiveness. There is a need to improve process operations, product quality and productivity with an ever-decreasing wo...
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Since the 1970s, the prototyping of physical models used in the engineering world has passed through three distinct phases. In the third phase, a series of different revolutionary methodologies-collectively called the 3D rapid prototyping methodologies-is capable of producing a physical prototype from the computer model in a very short turnround time and without the fuss required by NC programming...
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H/sub infinity / robust control design research filled the conference agenda of the 1980s. In this article, the importance of these developments for control system design is reviewed and explained.<>
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The constructive design of dependable distributed real-time systems out of pre-validated components requires precise interface specifications of the components in the temporal domain and in the value domain. This paper focuses on the temporal specification of interfaces in composable distributed real-time systems and establishes four principles of composability (independent development of nodes, s...
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Home automation is not a new concept. It has been around for a couple of decades in some form or other. Early commercial systems focused on the control of lighting, security, climate and appliances around the house. Adoption rates have hardly set the world alight, and the networks have tended to be quite sophisticated and, consequently, on the expensive side. While the industry is getting smarter ...
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CANopen is a truly open protocol that has not been developed by one company alone. Several working groups, consisting of many different device manufacturers and end-users, have co-operated to produce the CANopen standards, now under the supervision of the CAN in Automation organisation. CANopen has been produced as a result of EU funding. This article gives an overview of some of the fundamental c...
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Performance requirements in aeronautics and the rapid growth of electronics, especially of digital computers, have gradually led to the combination of advanced control theories and fly-by-wire technology. This has resulted in designs for which the control systems are flight-critical. The required reliability is usually achieved by a multiplication of sensors computers and actuators accompanied by ...
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There has been a growing interest in the area of engineering psychology. This article considers some of the major accidents which have occurred in recent years, and the contribution which engineering psychology makes to designing systems and enhancing safety. Accidents are usually multi-causal, and the resident pathogens in the design and operation of human-machine systems can lead to devastating ...
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UK research into the design of multivariable controllers for gas turbines has been under way for several years. The results of simulation and engine test evaluations have been reported by Sutton (1991), and Shutler and Betteridge (1994). This article focuses on one aspect of multivariable controller design which is that of selecting outputs for closed-loop feedback control; this process is often r...
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The article reports an experiment in which the effects of the pitch, speed and the loudness of auditory signals on both subjective perceived urgency and response time are explored. The results show that the signals producing the highest ratings of perceived urgency, as well as the fastest response times, are those with a high frequency, a fast speed and a high level of loudness. Increases in all t...
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Simulation of industrial robots has become an important means for the increased efficient application of robots. However, the simulations still do not reflect a desired reality. A breakthrough has been achieved by defining the realistic robot simulation (RRS) interface. It enables the integration of original controller software into simulation systems. Now the motion behaviour of simulated robots ...
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One of the fastest growing market segments among control and automation technologies is the introduction and development of control network systems. Although fieldbus systems have been used for several years in industrial automation, control network systems opened the market to different application areas, such as home and building automation. The current activities in both fieldbus and control ne...
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Methods for tuning PID controllers so that the closed loop response closely matches that of a reference model are described. These approaches are based on direct search optimisation using an identified model and can be applied to a wide variety of industrial processes, including those with high order dynamics. Results from the application to controller tuning for two distinct industrial systems ar...
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The author discusses the evolution of the industrial robot and the enabling technologies which dominate the subject of robotics. In the early 1960s the available supporting technology in electronics and computing was not sufficiently well developed to expect a successful industrial robot to take its place in the manufacturing scene. It was not until the mid 1970s that the robot started to make an ...
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Under competition from other forms of transport, railway operators are seeking to offer their passengers ever-increasing speed and comfort. Further improvements are desired, but conventional (passive) suspension technology is now reaching the limit of its optimisation and development. Improvements to speed and comfort could be obtained by further improvements to the quality of the track, but this ...
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Presents a summary and discussion of the findings of a recent survey into the academic perspective of professional issues in software engineering. The study is intended to be the first stage in a larger research programme to establish whether the academic perspective and educational practices in facilitating awareness of professional issues in software engineering are in line with the views and re...
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The Internet brings many new features to the process control and automation field however it has its limitations in terms of functionality, performance, security, and reliability. Emerging Web technologies are promising to overcome many of these limitations, and are helping the Internet to evolve into a highly graphical, interactive and collaborative environment. The objective of this paper was to...
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The article discusses the use of Microcosm, an open hypermedia system developed by the University of Southampton's Multimedia Research Group for Pirelli Cables building wire factory at Aberdare, South Wales. An open hypermedia system allows a single multimedia resource base to be used for a range of applications, and permits the users to have access to the stored information in a structured manner...
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The complexity of signalling power supplies can be described through the load, the original solutions and their evolution into the systems currently employed upon the railways. Power supplies to signalling systems and other trackside loads have a number of unique requirements to challenge the electrical engineer
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Today, advances in personal computing are helping corporations compete in a dynamic, global economy. Businesses, however, need new ways to deliver information systems in a faster, more cost-effective manner. Object technology, in the form of COM (the Common Object Model or Component Object Model), can help businesses meet these needs. This article presents GDES (General Data Extract Service) for c...
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Laboratory tests have been conducted to explore the performance capability of a CNC machine process incorporating a vision inspection system. It has been demonstrated that the approach can be usefully applied to existing machines at relatively low cost. A proposal for a fully integrated control scheme is presented.<>
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Automotive electronic systems are piggybacking on the exponential growth of the computer industry. This article takes a look at the progressive innovations which have shaped the electrical architecture of today's vehicles and which will mould tomorrow's. It discusses: why networks are necessary in vehicles; special attributes of these networks; examples of automotive control network protocols; imp...
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Although global statistics suggest that the UK is still lagging behind other advanced nations in the uptake of modern robotics technology, falling prices, increased relative performance and smaller installation footprints are prompting more British manufacturers and processors to invest in multi-axis industrial robots. Identifying the potential applications and cost benefits is one thing however; ...
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Aims & Scope

Published from 2003-2007, Computing and Control Engineering was concerned with computing, communications, control and instrumentation. It provided a forum in which practising professionals could keep abreast of technical developments in a wide range of disciplines in their field, and a forum for exchanging experiences, anecdotes, success and failure stories and best practices in the conduct of their professional lives.